Update!

Wal-Mart is at it again!

By now you’ve heard about the fiasco at the Blue Ridge Mall Redevelopment. Wal-Mart is about to perpetrate the same rip-off of taxpayers in Wyandotte County as it did in Kansas City, Missouri. In a Kansas City Star article titled “Board endorses TIF district for Wyandotte County project” September 1^st, 2006, reporter Mark Wiebe writes “Wyandotte County’s Unified Board of Commissioners on Thursday night took the first step toward granting $41 million in tax incentives for a $144 million development anchored by a Wal-Mart Supercenter.” He also goes on to write “At a public hearing…residents questioned the need for tax incentives for wealthy developers in an area already an economic success.” This project dubbed The Plaza at The Speedway would “give residents everyday amenities that Village West lacks, such as a grocery store (as a part of the Supercenter)…” the article says, “The Unified Government projects that in three years the project would generate more than $4 million in tax revenues.”

Let’s take a closer look at what all that means to us average residents.

As we are the Unified Government, what are we promising the developers of the proposed Plaza at The Speedway?

We are promising to help fund this development by deferring taxes (that all residents pay) as an incentive for Wal-Mart to build a Supercenter in our neighborhood. A neighborhood that is quickly becoming an economic success story, not a blighted area where these incentives were designed to spur economic development. A neighborhood that lacks a grocery store, not retail stores. Well no plan is perfect.

Let’s look at what else we’ll get for our $41 Million dollars.

Well according to the Unified Government (that’s us) in three years we’ll get about $4 million in revenues. That’s an average of $1.333 million a year. It will only take us about 32 years to pay off the $41 million.

Where exactly will these $4 million in revenues come from?

Well, the development is to provide residents amenities that we don’t have at the Village West

Wal-Mart

Always Low Prices Wages, Always!

Wal-Mart cut a sweetheart deal with the Blue Ridge Mall Redevelopment company.

The redevelopment company sought, and was granted, roughly $26 Million in TIF (Tax Increment Financing) to level the Blue Ridge Mall and make way for a Wal-Mart Supercenter. In a Kansas City Business Journal article titled “TIF Commission endorses Blue Ridge Mall Plan” October 14, 2004, the owner of the mall, said it anticipates the redevelopment to provide 1,200 construction jobs.   

The redevelopment company has leveled the mall to make way for the 200,000 square foot Wal-Mart Supercenter,  which  is now under construction.

Here’s where the taxpayers get cheated!  Wal-Mart has given a good deal of the construction work to out-of-town contractors like Charter Commercial Drywall, a subcontractor from Texas.  Not only do these contractors import their workers from outside the area and pay wages and benefits well below those which prevail in our community, what little these people do make goes straight back to their own home towns.  Thus, the impact of this construction project is largely negative as local workers are denied the opportunity to work and earn fair wages.  Many of the 1,200 good paying construction jobs the taxpayers were supposed to benefit from, went to out-of-town contractors who pay wages and benefits well below those which prevail in our community, not the local craftsmen who raise their children here, pay taxes here, and support our local merchants.

The taxpayers in our community have gotten a rotten deal!  We have granted roughly $26 Million in TIF money and for what?  1,200 construction jobs, many of which are going to imported labor, and the estimated 1,600 full-time jobs paying roughly $18,000 a year.

Enough is enough!  With one hand Wal-Mart is benefiting from tax breaks, with the other they are importing construction workers and cheating our local economy.  Let’s send a clear message to all greedy corporations like Wal-Mart by taking our hard earned dollars and shopping somewhere else!  Let’s send the message loud and clear, “If Wal-Mart takes our handout and then cheats our local economy, then we won’t shop in Wal-Mart’s stores!” 

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